Page:Mexico as it was and as it is.djvu/447

 366 brought to lay aside the vanity of retaining large possessions. The cession of such a disjointed part of the Republic as California, would be an advantage. In no case can it ever be profitable to the Mexican Republic, nor can it possibly remain united to it for any length of time. . Therefore, by giving up this territory for the debt, would be getting rid of this last for nothing. * * * * If California were ceded for the English debt, the creditors might be formed into a Company, with the difference, that they should have a sort of sovereignty over the territory—somewhat in the manner of the East India Company. This, in my opinion, would certainly bring a revenue in time which might be equal to the debt; and, under good management and with an English population, would most certainly realize all that has been predicted of this fine country."

Now, may not this sudden usurpation of the Sandwich Islands be a premonitory symptom—a step in advance to a movement upon Mexico? Look, for a moment, at the map of the world. England already has control of the Eastern part of Asia; is looking toward her possessions of the Hudson Bay Company, and is evidently excited by our Senatorial harangues on the Oregon Territory. Her rival, Russia, has encroached on the Californias by a settlement at Bodega, and is known to have attempted to procure the cession of an upland tract in the Hawaiian Islands, under the pretense of a desire "for soil to cultivate wheat." France has the Marquesas. We are prosecuting our claims on the North Western Territory. England requires a central rendezvous for her fleets in the Pacific, and she seizes the Sandwich Islands. They are in the direct line of trade from the West Coast to China. Mexico owes Great Britain an enormous debt which she is unable to pay. A project is on foot to cross the Isthmus of Panama by a railway or canal. Steam navigation has already been introduced into the Pacific, and we all know how rapidly the facilities were advanced within a few years to reach India through the Red Sea.

Now I confess to you, that, combining all these circumstances—the value of the Islands and the Main, the greediness of England, the manner in which she is pushing her Empire all over the world—I cannot but see danger in the sudden attempted seizure of the Hawaiian group, and think it time that the statesmen of our country should take a decided stand in the politics of this hemisphere. I think I have shown the importance of these Islands to our commerce, and the value of the Californias, both as a country of vast natural resources, and as a territory which, in the hands of a European Power, would become a central point, whence it might powerfully influence the future destinies of this Continent.

"The Pacific Coast of Spanish America," says the author I have already quoted, "is, in uninterrupted extent, equal to the whole coast of the Old World from the Naze of Norway to the Cape de Verd in Africa. What reflections must this give rise to, when we consider that this line of coast comprehends Denmark, Germany, Holland, the Netherlands, Great Britain, France, Portugal, Spain, Italy, the countries around the Mediterranean, and part of Africa? And certainly the American shores are bounded by countries, naturally more rich than all these ancient and powerful countries united."

It seems, then, that the true wisdom of our Government should be directed toward the preservation of this immense territory intact, and under the growing influence of Republican systems. A wrong step in statesmanship in our day and generation, may involve us in all the foreign difficulties and questions of the "balance of power," and affect the fate of our hemisphere for centuries to come. But, under any circumstances, let it be our care to keep sacred the soil of our